Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions c7.8

c7.8

Rāma, on his expedition to Ceylon for the recovery of his wife Sītā, who had been carried off by Rāvaṇa, is generally admitted to have passed through the Mysore country. On the abduction of Sītā, as she was borne along by her captor in his air-car, her rescue was attempted by Jaṭāyu, king of the vultures, who was slain by Rāvaṇa. According to an inscription at the place (Mk 27), it was on the Jaṭinga Rāmēśvara hill in the Molakālmuru tāluq that Jaṭāyu fell when mortally wounded. But before he died he was able to impart the information as to who the despoiler was. This led to the despatch of Hanumān, the monkey chief, as a spy to Laṅkā or Ceylon to obtain confirmation of the report. Meanwhile Rāma made an alliance with Sugrīva, the king of Kishkindha, on the Pampā or Tuṅgabhadrā river (near the site of the mediæval Vijayanagar), with the aid of whose forces he marched against Rāvaṇa in Ceylon. On his way through the Mysore region Rāma seems to have crossed the Kāvērī river at Rāmanāthpura in the Arkalgūd tāluq (Ag 53, Yd 25, 26). The tributary Lakshmantīrtha river, close by, is named after his brother Lakshmaṇa. The return journey, after his triumph, seems to have been by way of Āvani in the Mulbāgal tāluq—where there is a group of temples dedicated severally to Rāma, Lakshmaṇa, Bharata, Śatrughna, Vāli, and Sugrīva—through Nandi in the Chik-Ballāpur tāluq (CB 29), and perhaps Mulukuṇṭe in the Tumkūr tāluq (Tm 14).